Chapter 695: Partner

Although China's software industry started later than the United States, many software companies were born in the early days of Internet development.

Kingsoft is definitely a leader among them. As early as the DOS system era, it has launched the WPS system. After entering the Windows era, it is the only office software in China that can compete with Microsoft Office.

The products launched since then, such as Kingsoft Powerword for dictionaries, Kingsoft Antivirus software for antivirus software, and Swordsman Love for games, are all milestone products in China's software industry.

In particular, the game modifier Kingsoft Ranger is definitely a great innovation. In those days, it was a must for single-player games. Changing attributes to money, and enjoying the invincible pleasure, was more refreshing than using cheats.

However, what Li Weidong is looking at is not the software company Kingsoft, but the CEO of Kingsoft, Mr. Lei.

China's Internet industry has no shortage of bigwigs. However, if he is really willing to treat smartphones as a career, he must be the first to recommend Mr. Lei.

At this time, Mr. Lei is busy with the IPO of Kingsoft. This is also the fifth time Mr. Lei has led Kingsoft to go public.

In the first four attempts to go public, Kingsoft moved to the Hong Kong Island Growth Enterprise Market, the Special Economic Zone Growth Enterprise Market, the US Nasdaq and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Main Board, but ultimately failed. Now Kingsoft intends to try to be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Speaking of which, Jinshan's development path is also very bumpy. Back in the DOS era, Jinshan relied on WPS office software and Jinshan Hanka. Don't marginalize the market.

Afterwards, Kingsoft launched several counterattacks, but none of them were able to shake the status of Office. Especially in 1997, Kingsoft launched WPS97, but it encountered Microsoft's classic Office97. Businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy.

Fortunately, Mr. Lei turned the tide and launched Kingsoft Powerword and Kingsoft Antivirus one after another, which saved Kingsoft.

After that, Jinshan rebuilt WPS and completely rewritten all the codes. The WPS2000 system launched in 1999 has integrated various functions such as text office, spreadsheet, multimedia presentation production and image processing, which is almost the same as the function of Office.

This is also WPS's second venture. After years of hard work, Kingsoft has launched WPS2005 with independent intellectual property rights.

It is also this office system that has been purchased by many domestic government agencies, enterprises and institutions. The market share of the WPS system has jumped to more than 20%.

Jinshan is considered to be alive again, and for Mr. Lei at this time, his only goal is to lead Jinshan to go public.

Although Kingsoft was successfully listed, the listing was rather embarrassing. At that time, Kingsoft's valuation was only HK$5.3 billion. Compared with Tencent, which went public in 2004, its market value has reached HK$80 billion. It was listed on Nasdaq in 2005. Baidu’s listing was valued at US$4 billion, while Alibaba’s market value exceeded HK$160 billion a month later.

In the Internet industry, Tencent, Baidu, and Ali can only be regarded as the little brothers of Kingsoft. When Mr. Lei joined Kingsoft, these Internet giants had not yet been born! However, in terms of capital operation, the younger brothers of the past all eventually came to the fore.

And when Kingsoft was successfully listed, Mr. Lei also lost his goal, so he resigned from the position of Kingsoft CEO and went home to count the money. It was not until three years later that Mr. Lei returned to the arena and founded Xiaomi.

Lei Zong is one year younger than Li Weidong, and the two are considered to be the same age.

After greeting each other for a few words, Li Weidong took the lead in getting to the point.

Mr. Ray,

Apple just announced a new product, you should have heard of it? Li Weidong asked.

Is that the phone you're talking about? I remember it's called iPhone. Mr. Lei paused, then continued: This new product not only uses a touch screen, but also uses multi-touch technology. It will take some time for touch technology to enter the practical stage, but I didn’t expect Apple to bring this technology to mobile phones so quickly.”

Touch screen is not a new thing for a long time, and many window industries have already used touch screen, such as automatic ticket machines in subways, ATMs in banks, etc., all use touch screens.

Electronic products, such as the central control screen of the car, MP4 players, and mobile phones, also have touch screens. Like many mobile phones with handwriting function, the practical is the touch screen, which is very friendly to people who do not know Chinese Pinyin.

But the touch screen at that time was not practical with this multi-touch technology. At that time, the resistive touch screen was mainly used, and the touch response of the screen was slow and not durable. If an area was used frequently, it would soon fail.

Apple only acquired the multi-touch technology in 2005. The industry generally believes that this technology needs at least three to five years of development before it can be put into practical use, but Apple has only used it for more than a year. In time, this technology was used on the iPhone.

Since Rebs has some understanding of the iPhone, Li Weidong didn't go around, he said bluntly: Mr. Lei, I think Apple's iPhone is the trend of future mobile phone development, and I also want to invest in similar products.

Does Li Dong also plan to make this new type of mobile phone? Mr. Lei frowned, and then said, I'll be honest, it's probably more difficult.

Although I haven't got a prototype of the iPhone yet, I don't know the specific structure of this product, but from the information released by Apple, the technology contained in the iPhone is the most advanced.

This advanced technology is all in the hands of foreign companies, and there is no domestic supply chain, so it is impossible to create it. Even if it is to go to the cottage, there is a lack of corresponding technology.

Mr. Lei is right, so I want to start with the operating system. Li Weidong continued: I noticed that Apple's iPhone uses a system called IOS, which is developed by Apple itself. developed.

If other companies make similar products, they will also need to use the operating system. Do you think Apple will share their IOS system with other companies?

From what I know about Apple, they definitely won't share their operating system. Mr. Lei said without hesitation.

Yes, so in this industry, another operating system is needed. Li Weidong said.

Mr. Lei frowned and thought for a while, then said, As far as I know, the current operating system of mobile phones is the Saipan system.

Saipan is mainly aimed at traditional types of mobile phones, not this new type of mobile phone. Li Weidong continued: But in the future, maybe Saipan will also make a special system for this new type of mobile phone, so I want to hurry up. Before Saipan, first seize part of the market.”

Chairman Li, I can understand what you think. But I think the risk of this project is a bit high. Mr. Lei continued: After all, Apple's new mobile phone has just been released and has not been tested by the market. Whether it can take a place in the market is still unknown. It is too early to enter the market now.”

Mr. Lei paused and added: It's not that I'm not optimistic about this new type of mobile phone, I just feel that there are too many uncertainties at the moment.

Li Weidong replied: It is because of the many uncertainties that I decided to invest in this industry. If the uncertainty is eliminated and the market has confirmed that this is a potential product, there will inevitably be a large influx of funds. , there are many first-class technology companies, and the cake I can get will be much less.

Mr. Lei nodded suddenly, although Mr. Lei was already an angel investor at this time, and there were more cases of successful investment. But his understanding of investment is definitely not as good as Li Weidong, a top domestic industrial tycoon.

I just listened to Mr. Lei and asked: Chairman Li came to me, did he hope to get technical support from Jinshan, or investment? If it is technical support, there should be no problem. Our software development level in Jinshan is second to none in China. Yes, we can set up a special project team,

If it is to let Jinshan invest, this is a bit difficult. We are in a critical period of IPO, and it is not appropriate to invest in uncertain projects at this time, which will affect our IPO process.

Li Weidong smiled slightly, and then said, I don't want Jinshan's technology or investment. I hope you, Mr. Lei, can join this project.

Mr. Lei was stunned for a while, and then he asked tentatively, Are you referring to me personally?

Yes, it's you, I hope Mr. Lei can become my partner and be in charge of this project. Li Weidong spread his hands and said, I really don't understand software, so I need an expert. partner.

Chairman Li really looks up to me! Mr. Lei sighed deeply, and then declined: Thanks to Chairman Li for his kind invitation, but Jinshan is now in the critical period of its IPO, and all my energy is on it. , I'm afraid I won't have time to lead other projects.

Mr. Lei, don't rush to refuse! Li Weidong smiled slightly. Then he said: Mr. Lei, I know that you have been running around for Jinshan's listing for so many years. Now it seems that Jinshan's IPO will be successful this time. After Jinshan's successful listing, what are your follow-up plans? In other words, what is your next life goal?

At the mention of the words goal of life, Mr. Lei was slightly taken aback.

Over the years, he has been working hard for Jinshan to go public. When it comes to Jinshan's listing, he really has no new goals.

Li Weidong continued; With all due respect, I think Jinshan's development strategy is too conservative, and because of this conservativeness, the upper limit of Jinshan's development is not very high, and it is already very good to be able to complete the IPO.

In the future, Jinshan will at most spin off its business and then go public. This is at the level of capital operation and has little to do with making products. Of course, you can make a lot of money through capital operation, but Mr. Lei, playing with capital may not be what you want, right?

Mr. Lei did not speak, which was equivalent to acquiescing to Li Weidong's statement.

Compared with capital operation, he prefers to make products and use products to change people's lives, so Xiaomi will gradually extend from making mobile phones to the entire smart home field. In this regard, even Apple is not as good as Apple. Millet.

As Li Weidong said, it is indeed difficult for Jinshan to make too many breakthroughs in business.

Looking at the development path of Jinshan, although it is a veteran technology company in China, it has been stubbornly fighting computer software, and it has always been half a beat in the Internet.

In the instant messaging software, Jinshan missed it; in the era of portal websites, Jinshan missed it; in the era of e-commerce platforms, Jinshan missed it; even in game development, there is only one IP of Swordsman Love, which has been frying for 20 years.

Think about other Internet bigwigs. When they see something that has potential for development, they immediately invest money in a rush. What they know is original, and what they don’t know is copied.

In contrast, Jinshan's business strategy is indeed too conservative.

Kingsoft's situation is more complicated. In the early days, it was a Hong Kong Island company. Later, Hong Kong Island Kingsoft merged with Founder Group, while the mainland part independently established Kingsoft Computer. In 1998, Lenovo became the largest shareholder in Kingsoft and reorganized Kingsoft.

In 2000, Kingsoft reorganized its shareholding system, and Rebs became the president of Kingsoft at that time. After that, Jinshan began to seek IPO listing work, and it took eight years to successfully go public.

Judging from the development history of Jinshan, the company's ownership is constantly changing, which will inevitably affect the development of the company, and the company's management may not have too much real power.

To put it simply, the management of the company can’t decide the direction of the company’s development, and the boss above has been replaced every three days. Naturally, there is no long-term strategic plan.

Perhaps Mr. Lei has always been unfamiliar with Kingsoft's strategic planning and management philosophy, so he resigned as CEO after Kingsoft's listing.

A few years later, when Mr. Lei returned to Kingsoft as the chairman, the first thing he did was a complete reform. From the product focus, to the development direction, from the system construction to the corporate culture, everything was changed.

Kingsoft has also successfully transformed from a software company to an Internet company, with an annual revenue of less than 1 billion RMB, and an annual revenue of 12 billion RMB.

Anyone who has watched Wind and Cloud must have heard of the phrase Are golden scales a thing in a pond? It is perfectly suitable for Mr. Lei. Now Kingsoft Corporation can no longer support Mr. Lei as a big fish. Now, Rebs needs a bigger stage!

Li Weidong said impassively, Mr. Lei, the current Kingsoft Corporation is no longer suitable for you, you need a stage with full autonomy to give full play to your talents!

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, they all changed the world. And I am looking for you as a partner because I think you will become the next person to change the world!

Li Weidong's touting is a bit exaggerated. In 2007, when it comes to the next person who will change the world, people will definitely think of Zuckerberg, and a few years later, they will definitely think of Elon Musk. on the head.

But Li Weidong's remarks made Mr. Lei feel that a fire of hope was burning in his chest.

Humans all have desires, but different people have different desires. The poor seek food and clothing, ordinary people want to live a prosperous life, the middle class longs for the luxurious life of the rich, and the rich long to live longer.

For Mr. Lei, using his ability to change the world is the desire lurking in his heart.

I saw Mr. Lei sighed lightly, and then said: Chairman Li, can you give me some time, I will think about it carefully.

Okay, then I'll wait for Mr. Lei's good news! Li Weidong smiled and nodded, he knew that he had succeeded more than half.

Dealing with people with ideals, talking about money or feelings may not be effective, let’s talk obediently about how to contribute to the development of mankind!

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